Endgame for Seablindness: defence organisation and the future of the Royal Navy and the United States Navy

By Dr James W E Smith

Message from the Editor

The author revisits the issue of seablindness [112/2, p. 264], comparing the history of defence unification in the UK and US and taking stock of the situation today.
A 30 minute read.

It is an overlooked fundamental fact that the analysis of history proves, since the founding of professional navies, beginning with the Royal Navy in 1546, that if you cannot communicate what this military power is for, or what both ‘maritime’ and ‘sea’ mean to a nation, then nothing else matters.1James W.E. Smith, ‘Deconstructing the Seapower State: Britain, American and Defence Unification’, PhD Thesis (King’s College London, 2021). Most issues, debates, discord, discussions, and disagreements flow from the failure to consider this the number one priority. This uncomfortable fact has been fo…

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Anchoring Britain’s Defence: A Critical Examination of the Royal Navy’s role in National Security
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The fundamentals of sea power